Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Prepping for Practice, Part 2 (Readying the Brain)

Music is an incredibly powerful tool. It affects many parts of our brain--those related to memory, emotion, movement, sensory input, and organization to name just a few (cerebellum, amygdala, prefrontal cortex, temporal lobe, sensory cortex, etc., etc.). And because of this incredible power, it is wise to help the brain out a bit to get it ready for the massive amount of input and output it is about to be part of...

Breath is the great balancer of the body. It is an automatic function that we can easily control, which makes it very powerful. Slower breath brings us into a place of relaxation and confidence. After all, who among us hasn't tried to slow down our breath when taking a plunge into a too-cold pool or going in front of an audience to make a presentation? It helps us to be calm and reasonable. I would also add that slowing our breath increases our rate of efficiency, as it lowers anxiety and stress (two things that we experience from a young age that often prevent us from being "the best that we can be").

There are a couple of breath exercises that I like to use, both can be effective in a short amount of time. Try them both. See what works for you! Do these in your practice space before or after stretching the body, whatever works for you.

#1: Watching the breath: That's right...just pay attention to your breath. Don't try to change anything about it. You can count each inhalation/exhalation cycle up to a count of 10, then back down to 1. Repeating this three times (or thereabouts) is often enough for people to fall into a greater state of relaxation and only takes a few minutes. (IMPORTANT: If you get distracted by thoughts, don't worry about it! Just take quick notice of that thought and go back to counting your breaths...if you lost count, start over! No big deal...)

#2: Controlling the breath: Breath in for a count of 4, hold for a count of 6, breath out for a count of 8. Repeat 3 times. After much practice, you may be able to increase the amount of repetitions, but do not force yourself. We are not after getting dizzy here!

Some people like to do a few sequences of #2 and then go into #1...this is a wonderful idea....try it!

Remember: "Prana" is Sanskrit for not only "breath", but "spirit"...and with music, we want to let our spirit (and our emotions) sing, no matter what instrument we are playing...

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